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THE SALEM 
PILGRIM 

HIS BOOK 



U Ci^ rr-y^ 



DANIEL "LO^N C^ CO 

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 

19 3 



THE LIBRARY OF |! 


CONGHESS. I 


Two Copies 


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t903 


n Copyright 


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XXc. No. 


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_„S£n- 


B. 



Copyright, 1903, by- 
Daniel Low & Co. 



Irving K. Annable, 
Boston and Salem. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF SALEM. 

IF the pilgrim to Salem wishes to stand at the focus and 
centre of Puritan New England, on the spot where was 
planted one of the twin shoots of American Democracy, 
and from which there went forth not a few of the great 
forces that have shaped American history, let him go to Town 
House Square. If there is sacred soil in America, it is here. 
To be sure, one must have the historic imagination, or he 
will see nothing in the busy, bustling modern square to 
remind him of antiquity. But if he has power to realize the 
past let him stand here a moment and picture the scene as 
it was in the years immediately following the arrival of 
Endicott and the Puritans in 1628. 

The modern blocks and stone pavements vanish. The 
clang of electric cars dies away. The hurrying throngs 
of moderns disappear. He stands on virgin soil, in the 
midst of a forest clearing, on a pleasant elevation between 
two winding crystal streams, with fresh fountains near at 
hand and the cry of bird and animal alone breaking the 
silence of the encompassing wilderness. Yet signs of 
human occupancy are not wanting; for this spot is the 
chosen sight for the upspringing of a new and vast civiliza- 
tion. Already a few rude buildings have been erected, be- 
ginning with the houses of Boger Conant and his little 
fishing colony who had removed here from the abandoned 
settlement on Cape Ann in 1626. 

On what is now the southeast corner of the Square once 
stood the rudely-constructed Meeting-house, built in 1634 
and enlarged in 1639, in which Samuel Skelton, Roger Wil- 
liams and Hugh Peter preached the sermons that rekin- 
dled the faith of the struggling colonists and kept them 
true to their great and toilsome enterprise. Later, in 1718, 
there was erected, three rods west of the church, the Court 
House where the General Court was convened in 1728 and 
'29 and in which the last General Assembly of the Province 

(3) 



THE SALEM PILGBIM: HIS BOOK 



of Massachusetts Bay met, in 1774. The site of this first 
Meeting'-house is now divided as were the minds of the 
settlers, between the interests of business and religion. 
The First Church of Salem, with its tv/o hundred and 
seventy-four years of continuous existence, has the upper 
floor as its place of worship, while the street floor is occu- 
pied by the widely-known Jewelers and Silversmiths, 
Daniel Low^ & Co. 

Adjoining the church toward South River, in the early 
days, was the house of the amiable and lamented first 
teacher of the church, Erancis Higginson. On the opposite 
corner stood the house belonging to th > stirring Hugh 
Peter. Later this was the site of the old gabled Piatt's 
Tavern. Not more than thirty rods northward, on what 
is now Washington Street, stood th^ ^'fayre house" of 
Governor Endicott, removed from Cape Ann and rebuilt 
for the Governor's use. A short distance to the west, on 
the highest point of land in ths vicinity, near the corner 
of Lynde and Sewall Streets, was the fort. The other 
houses were ranged along these two rough thoroughfares, 
now Washington and Essex Streets. 

Such was the early scene. What are some of th^ shaping 
forces and events associated with this spot? It was here 
in the first place, that the form of church government, r^nd 
to a large extent of civil government, of the new world 
was determined. When Erancis Higginson and Samuel 
Skelton, the two first ministers, arrived in the ''Talbot," 
June 29, 1639, the g-reat and pressing question arose: 
What sort of a church shall be established on these new 
shores? The Massachusetts Bay Colonists were not, like 
the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Separatists. As Higginson 
himself said in his famous farewell: "We do not go to 
New England as Separatists from the Church of England, 
though we cannot but separate from the corruptions in it; 
but we go to practise the positive part of church reforma- 
tion, and propagate the gospel in America." 

(4) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



Both Hig-g-inson and Skelton were ordained ministers of 
the Church of England. Many of the colonists were com- 
municants. But instead of proceeding as if this were 
simply a part of the mother church transplanted to new 
soil, what was done? On the 20th of July, 1629, at the 
summons of Governor Endicott, the people assembled, ^'for 
the choyce of a pastor and teacher." ''Their choice was 
after this manner, — every fit member wrote in a note his 
name whom the Lord moved him to think was fit for a 
pastor and so likewise whom they would have for a teacher; 
so the most voice was for Mr. Skelton to be pastor and Mr. 
I-Iig-ginson to be teacher; and they accepting the choice, 
Mr. Higginson, with three or four m.ore of the gravest 
members of the church, laid their hands on Mr. Skelton, 
using prayers therewith. This being done, then there was 
imposition of hands on Mr. Higginson." ^ 

This was not only the first ordination in America, but the 
origin of the ballot in Massachusetts Bay, if not in the 
Western world. - 

On the 6th of August the organization was completed, 
and the covenant, famous for its breadth and sweetness, 
drawn up by Higginson, adopted. This covenant is still in 
use in the First Church. At this service, too, the principle of 
church fellowship received its first expression in America, 
for Governor Bradford arrived from Plymouth in time to 
give the sister church the right hand of fellowship. 

Just where these two memorable services took place is 
not known. They may have been held in Governor Endi- 
cott's house or in the "unfinished building" used for a 
church, mentioned by Dr. Bentley. But it is more probable 



^Letter of Deacon Gott to Governor Bradford. See Felt's 
Annals, p. 27. 

-"The earliest use of the ballot on this side of the Atlan- 
tic was made in the election of the officers of the First 
Church in Salem in the seventeenth century." 

(5) 



r3z SAXzx pixGsrM:: his boos 



Lmdeir tlie o^pen sky. upczi cr near -his --— c'lsj noderTi 
square. 

ISoT is this zhe only inieres- arxaciLing co tiiis spor. I- 
^sras iiere that HawtiLome. wirL. srran^ probability in "nis 
favor, located the famans incident of tlie f.ery Endicott 
cTXttTTTg tne cross from tlie EnglisiL fias. ISeax the Meeting- 
hanse srcod the stocks and pillory: and not far away tiie 
mrsu sentry-cosL Here. too. in later years, tlie town ptmip 
was located- The Tisi-or may cross the Square to the 
City Hall and see the old parchment, with its curions In- 
dian hieroslypiiic si^matnres. dated 16S8. pnrporting to 
conTey all the lani in the town from tne heirs of Xane- 
pasnemet tt the ttwn of Salem for the stim of twenty 
pcnnds. 
Tne best way tc ret into the atmosphere of the early days 
is to visit some of the oldest 
houses, tn:- Soger Williams Hcnse. 
on the comer cf Essex and 25"Grth 
ThEpLD^ Str-ets (1634). the -Biouse of 

TOW.M Se-en Gables" at the foot of T-iir- 

« PUiMP lier Street, or the Old Bakery. 2.3 
Washington Str et (1663). The 
E.cser Williams ho-'jise, supposed 
=- to have been thr one from which 

'.rcr-er.icT jiicisl'ifzy ^^^ famous exile ned in 1636. is 
' dsa jczicr.tc irii- probably the oldest house in Salem. 

laC£223tc:3e7QlIi:?CJip!" '^^^ exterior has undergone many 
cnanges. but the interior is much 
as it tsras ^»-hen J'lstice Corwin of 
witchcraft fame occupied it. Tne title -The Witch House.** 
is due to a tradition that in it ^srer-- held some of the lorelim- 
inary hearings in the Witchcraft trials. In th.es€ low 
ccnSning roctns. the overhead beams he^ctt. tvi-th the axs. 
the uneven Scors laid with boards cf enormous width, the 
narrow windows with their tiny panes, the great open Sre- 

(6) 




convejing tie E±r of T-inVr-ng tiie "best on* of liniiLed r=- 
sc-zr-::eE. — cue eiiii ea.£ijj iTnp,. g-iTP hiniself back izi tiie olc 
r-zmgglizLg tjui lieroie days of the l»eg±Emings of ICe-c ZT:g- 

lazid. 



TTirCHCZATT AirX; TKE IfLASTTS'S CSG^STS". 




Tliere are certain. f£.cT3 -vrMci siiotild be —ell diiiei in 
iniiid before one cazi xisit ti.:- scenes of Wit^icraft delu- 
sion "sritli any jnst ttt-, n ^ T- g; '; c-.-. r^i-^ c* of tiiis strang'e diiapter 
cf 5"e-5r Englazid Msrory. 

1. Witeiicraft in Salem "sras only ti.e fa^-end cf a greai 
snpei-siiticn tiiat liad spread its dJgTr.a.l folds on the -erorld 
for eenrcries, nnznbering its -ricrin-s by imndreds of tboii- 
sands and aceeTted by the greatest scbolars and jurists. — 
nen like Tbcmas Cranmer and Joiin Wesley. Sir Jtartiievr 
Hale. "William Bla.ckstone and Jonn WintbrDp. There -srere 

— rther eotintry alone. 

2. The en-rircnment and ecnditicns of the colonists in 
the year 1691 "crere snch as t.o fost-er delnsinn. The dying 
cnt of the first nrss of enthtisia^m. isola.tion. la.ch of rei.ding 
and amnsements^ the confines of the sct^bre forests filled 
"vrith "cild beasts and sa-rag-^ all t.ended xo beg^t tineasi- 
ness and superstition. Kcreover in the parish cf B^x, 
San:inel Farris of Salem Vills.g'e (nov T^an-rers Centr=). 
"crhere the cntcreah :»ccnrred, jealonsy and strife -^rere 
a"rr: : :" 

(7) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



3. The Witchcraft delusion v/as a form of social insanity, 
community madness, in which all classes were involved. 
— ministers, physicians, magistrates and common people 
alike. The witches were heroes and heroines, the bewitched 
were the real witches and the judges were the ones most 
deluded. 

The originators of the Salem frenzy, and the chief actors 
throughout the persecution, consisted of a group of girls 




The "Witch" or Roger Williams House. 



and young women of Salem Village, among them Elizabeth 
Parris, daughter of the minister, nine years of age, Anne 
Putnam, daughter of the parish clerk, twelve, and Abigail 
Williams, a niece of Mr. Parris, eleven. These with seven 
others, aided by an old Indian servant in the Parris family, 
Tituba by name, sought to enliven the winter of 1691-2 
by the practice of palmistry, magic and kindred arts. Not 

(8) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



content with less harmful practices, they began to perform 
singular antics which attracted the attention of tha minis- 
ter and of the neighbors, making startling outcries, creep- 
ing under chairs and falling insensible to the floor, '^self- 
hypnotized," perhaps, as Barret Wendell suggests. The vil- 
lage physician, Doctor Griggs, was called in and pronounced 
them bewitched. The ministers of the vicinity were sum- 
moned and confirmed this judgment. 

If bewitched, v/ho had bewitched them? The "aflaicted 
children," as they began to be called, were pressed for an 
answer. At first they were silent, but at length they took 
a fatal step and called out ''Good," "Osburn," "Tituba." 
Two of these, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, were harm- 
less old women of not the best repute, and the third was 
the Indian servant of Mr. Parris. Accusation having been 
followed by arrest, a trial was next in order, and on the 
first day of March, 1692, the two chief magistrates of 
Salem, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, with aids 
and constables, came riding into Salem Village, took their 
places in the Meeting-house and summoned the parties to 
trial. Sarah Good was first examined. She was asked with 
what evil spirit she had familiarity, and answered, none. 
She was asked why she tormented these children, and re- 
plied that she did not torment them. But they, being 
present, were seized with agonies and cried out that she 
was tormenting them. Sarah Osburn was next examined. 
Then came Tituba. Her testimony was wild and alarming. 
She said that she had seen the Devil in the shape of a black 
dog and that he had offered her a red cat and a black cat 
if she v/ould serve him. She conjured up all sorts of ugly 
images. She stated that once, induced by her fellow pris- 
oners, she had tormented these children, but would not do 
so again. Such testimony was very damaging, and the 
three women were found guilty and committed to jail in 
Boston. 

The mischief was now well afoot and traveled fast. The 

(9) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



scheming and successful girls had the audacity to ''cry out" 
next upon Martha Corey, wife of Giles Corey, one of the 
most respected women of the community who had, from 
the first, declared that the girls were deceiving and the 
magistrates blinded. Mrs. Corey bore herself at her trial 
with firmness and patience, but she was helpless. "When 
she bit her lips the afllicted pretended to be bitten. When 
her hands were free they were in torments, when they 
were tied the girls were quiet. The result was that she, 
too, was found guilty and committed to jail. The next vic- 
tim was the aged and devout Rebecca Nourse, whose neigh- 
bors testified valiantly to her innocence, but without avail. 
After her came a little child of four, the daughter of Sarah 
Good. The girls showed tht; m.arks of her little teeth on 
their arms and produced the pins with which they ac- 
cused her of pricking them. To jail, therefore, the poor 
little child was sent. Like wildfire the horror spread, until 
the whole community was crazed. No one was safe. Ac- 
cusation followed accusation. Old and young, rich and 
poor, fell before the awful inquisition. 

As yet no one had been put to death. A special court was 
now appointed. William Stoughton of Dorchester was 
made chief justice and with him were six associates. The 
Court began its sessions in June, 1692, in the Court House, 
then standing in the middle of Washington Street, Salem, 
opposite the present City Hall. Here, before the end of 
September, twenty persons were condemned to death for 
Witchcraft. The unhappy victims were hanged upon Gal- 
lows Hill, with the exception of old Giles Corey, the iron- 
hearted, who for refusing to plead, was pressed to death 
under heavy weights in the neighborhood of Howard Street 
Cemetery. 

The fierceness of this vengeance worked a reaction. The 
firm and forgiving conduct of the executed, the exalted 
character of the persons later accused, especially of Mrs. 
Hale, the wife of the pastor of the First Church of Beverly, 

(10) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



the growing belief that the whole thing was a delusion, all 
combined to waken the community from the terrible night- 
mare. The trials grew infrequent and at length ceased, 
and in May, 1693, all confined for Witchcraft, to the num- 
ber of one hundred and fifty, were released. Belief in 
Witchcraft gradually passed away, never to return. 

With this outline sketch in mind, let the visitor who is 
interested in Witchcraft go from Town House Square to the 
Essex County Court House, — stopping to read tha bronze 
tablet (on the left side of Washington Street) which locates 
the site of the old Court House. In the clerk's room of the 
Court House he may see the original verbatim records of 
the trials and some of the pins produced by the afflicted. 
Now let him turn his steps down Federal Street until he 
comes to the site of the jail on the corner of Federal and 
St. Peter Streets where the Witchcraft victims were con- 
fined. The older part of the dwelling now standing here 
is said to contain timbers of the old jail. Thence let him go 
through St. Peter Street (at that time Prison Lane), turn 
to the right and follow Essex Street along the route over 
which those wronged men and women were taken, amid 
cries of scorn and derision, to Gallows Hill. As he stands 
upon that bleak hill-top, looking in vain for the monument 
which ought long ago to have been placed there in memory 
of these consecrated heroes, he may feel that he stands 
upon one of the sacred spots of earth, hallowed by heroic 
men and women, who, rather than confess a lie, gave their 
lives for truth and humanity. 



THE HAUNTS OF HAWTHORNE. 

THE street and house in which Hawthorne was born, 
July 4, 1804, are as little suggestive of his refined 
and poetic spirit as was his ancestry. The old dwell- 
ing (27 Union Street) built prior to 1692, with its hip roof 

(11) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



and hug-e chimney, stands on a side street leading from 
Essex Street to Salem Harbor. 

Hawthorne's father, a descendant of Major William Haw- 
thorne who came over in the ^'Arabella'' with Winthrop, 
and of John Hawthorne, one of the two unhappy Witchcraft 
judges, was a sea captain and died at Surinam in 1808 
while in command of a Salem vessel. The family there- 
upon removed to the house nearly opposite the birthplace, 
on Herbert Street, which was owned by Mrs. Hawthorne's 



r^t /P 



._ rtri^^ 







father. Here they lived in singular seclusion, Hawthorne's 
mother taking her meals by herself and hardly giving her 
children a chance to become acquainted with her, and his 
sisters, Elizabeth and Louise, seldom leaving the house. 

Hawthorne's room in this "Castle Dismal" was in the 
southwest corner of the third floor. A pane of g-lass upon 
which the author's name is scratched, together with many 
other relics of his boyhood days (among them copies of 
The Spectator, a racy little journal published by Haw- 
thorne with pen and ink, the constitution of the Pin Society 

(12) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



and other interesting' memorials), recalling this room, are 
in the possession of Mr. Richard Manning- of Salem. It 
was in this chamber, as Hawthorne playfully records in 
"American Notes," that he dreamed his dreams of fame 
and wrote those early sketches in which (now) one may 
see so clearly the budding of his genius. 

In this secluded home lived this gifted boy, "nourishing 
a youth sublime" under the tutelage of nature, books and 
thoughts (assisted by the instruction of the famous lexi- 
cographer, Joseph E. Worcester, whose private school he 
attended), until he entered Bowdoin College in 1821. One 
blissful year of this period he spent in the freedom of 
country life in Raymond, Maine. The privilege of a col- 
lege course he owed to his uncle, Mr. Robert Manning. 
After graduation he returned to Salem and, with the excep- 
tion of brief absences, gave himself up to literature and 
solitude. 

Hawthorne's solitude was at first rich and resourceful, 
but he was in imminent danger not only of becoming a 
recluse, but of burying his ten talents in oblivion, when he 
met for the first time in 1838, Sophia Peabody, who lived 
hardly more than a stone's throw from him in the old 
Peabody house in Charter Street, and at once knew that 
they were foreordained for one another. "We have met 
in eternity," Hawthorne writes her, "and there our inti- 
macy was formed." This new and absorbing passion roused 
Hawthorne's whole nature. He began to bestir himself to 
secure a home. In 1839 he obtained the office of weigher 
and ganger in the Boston Custom House. Losing this posi- 
tion upon the change of administration in 1841, he at once 
threw himself and his fortunes in with the Brook Farm 
experiment, hoping, no doubt, that his investment would 
bring him sufficient income to marry. Brook Farm failed, 
but Hawthorne married in 1842, taking his bride to the 
"Old Manse" in Concord. Here all was Paradise until the 
financial question became ominous. 

(13) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



The appointment of Surveyor of the Port of Salem, se- 
cured for him by his friend President Pierce, brought Haw- 
thorne and his family back to Salem in 1845, and again the 
old town became the home of its talented son. But the re- 
lationship was not as cordial as it might have been. Haw- 
thorne was silent and reserved and would not go into Salem 
society. He preferred the old salts about the wharves and 
selected his friends for himself. Salem naturally was 
piqued at this and failed to appreciate the hidden gem of 
his genius. When a change in the administration came 
Hawthorne had no political friends to uphold him. The 
result was that in 1849 he was removed from office and 
ten months later, in April, 1850, departed from Salem, 
never to return. Time is effecting a warmer feeling on the 
part of Salem toward Hawthorne, and she has now come to 
honor her talented son almost as much as the rest of the 
world honors him. 

The houses in Salem which most vividly suggest Haw- 
thorne are the house of the Scarlet Letter, 14 Mall Street, 
and the Grimshawe House, 53 Charter Street. The Mall 
Street house is one of the old Salem three-story rectangular 
houses, end to the street,with great angular rooms, into which 
the sun ''blazes without stint," as Mrs. Hawthorne wrote. 
It has a bit of yard protected by the regulation Salem high 
board fence and shaded with fruit trees, in which the pro- 
totype of the Snow Image was fashioned by the Hawthorne 
children. It was to this house — as the now familiar story 
runs — that Hawthorne returned from the Custom House 
on that June morning in 1849, telling his wife that ''he 
had left his head behind him." "Oh, then," she exclaimed, 
"you can write your book!" And upon his inquiring where 
the "bread and rice were to come from," she went to a drawer 
and brought forth a little pile of gold, one hundred and 
fifty dollars, that she had been secretly saving against a 
rainy day. Here, then, the wonderful story was begun and 
finished, so thrilling, so touching, so human, that when 

(14) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



Mrs. Hawthorne heard it from the lips of her husband, she 
sank from her chair to the floor in tears, overcome with 
emotion. To this home on Mall Street, too, came James T. 
Fields to inveigle the manuscript from the modest author, 
returning in high excitement to assure Hawthorne that its 
publication would make him a famous man. 

The Grimshawe House, — standing next the old Charter 
Street Burying Ground (where Hawthorne's ancestors to- 
gether with many other famous Salem men lie) — is gloomily 
suggestive at first only of the grim old Doctor of Haw- 




thorne's fancy and his pet spiders. But when one remem- 
bers that this was the home of the Peabodys and that here, 
in this grey old house, occurred one of tha immortal court- 
ships of literature, it becomes transfigured. 

The pilgrim will wish to see also the Custom House on 
Derby Street, the description of which is contained in the 
famous introduction to the Scarlet Letter. As for the 
''House of Seven Gables," it is well worth a visit for its 
quaintness and also for the charming view it affords of 
Salem Harbor. But let the stranger know that although 
it was a favorite haunt of Hawthorne, it was only one of 
several similar houses out of which the imagination of the 
romancer constructed the home of Hepzibah and Clifford. 

(15) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



Indeed all Salem is Hawthorne's and Hawthorne is 
Salem's. One cannot tread its quaint streets without a 
vision of the heaven-anointed youth striding through 
them at night, when he loved best to stroll, and finding 
upon everything the touch of Hawthorne's genius. The 
encompassing hills and shores, too, are all hallowed by 
his footsteps. Salem and Hawthorne cannot be understood 
ai^art. 



AN ITINERARY. 

THE best itinerary of Salem for the pilgrim v/ho wishes 
to see the most in the least time (although we cannot 
commend his policy), is a.s follows: 

Starting from Town House Square let the visitor go up 
Essex Street (i. e. west), passing on the left the birthplace 
(265 Essex Street) of Ambassador Joseph Choate, and on 
the right the handsome building, which stands upon the 
site of the house in which Professor A. Graham Bell per- 
fected the telephone. 

On the corner of North Street, behind a protruding drug 
store, stands the oldest house in Salem, the Roger Williams 
or ^'Witch House," which deserves inspection. Turning 
to the left and going through Summer Street to Broad 
Street, a little beyond the High School buildings and upon 
the opposite side, one comes upon the most picturesque of 
the early Salem houses, the Pickering House, built before 
1660. It is after the Dutch style, and with its ample 
grounds, makes a very comely picture. In this house was 
born the Revolutionary soldier and statesman, Timothy 
Pickering, Washington's Secretary of State. The old house 
is still in the Pickering family. 

Turn the corner to the right and go through Pickering 
Street to Chestnut Street. Here one should pause for a 
glance up and down the most stately and dignified street 

(16) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



of New England, bordered by its great elms and its princely- 
colonial houses. Turning down Chestnut Street (right) 
the exquisite spire of the South Church catches the eye. 
This church, built by Salem-s noted architect and wood- 
carver Samuel Mclntire in 1804, after Wren, is one of the 
noblest of the old meeting-houses of New England. On 
the opposite corner is Hamilton Hall, a chaste colonial 
assembly hall where Lafayette was received in 1824. Turn- 
ing to the left and going through Cambridge Street one 
comes out again upon Essex Street a little above the old 
North Church, — a fine old stone structure after the style 
of the English Parish Church, — and after passing the house 
where the author of The Lamplighter was born (No. 314), 
and the house where Nathaniel Bowditch, the great astron- 
omer, translated the Mechaniqua Celeste (No. 312), he is 
again at the Roger Williams House. 

Next take North Street for the old North Bridge. On 
the v/ay thither may be seen the old house on the corner of 
Lynde Street from which Lieutenant EenjarAin West 
marched to Bunker Hill to give his life for his country. 
It will well repay one to turn aside and v/alk a few rods 
up the next street (Federal) for a sight of the Nichols man- 
sion, built in 1798, perhaps the finest of the old houses of 
the commercial period in Salem, with its charming porch 
and its great corner pilasters. At North Bridge the monu- 
ment will tell the story of the famous bloodless repulse 
of the British which occurred here February 26, 1775, — 
before Lexington and Concord. 

Turning back through Bridge Street, as one approaches 
the Court Houses from the rear he may see, on the opposite 
side of Washington Street, the Old Bakery, built about 
1663. Beneath may be seen the rough bricks, the clap- 
boarding showing the ancient construction. In the Court 
House (corner Federal and Washington) the records of the 
Witchcraft trials and tlie witch pins will reward a careful 
inspection. The parlors of the Tabernacle Church, opposite, 

(17) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



contain the settee upon which sat the first missionaries 
of the American Board the day of their ordination, Febru- 
ary 6, 1812, and other interesting historical relics. 

Taking his staff let the pilgrim go dov/n Federal Street to 
the jail, in which the witches were confined. The old and 
favorite hymn-tune, Federal Street, written by General 
Henry K. Oliver, was named for this street. The site of the 
Old Jail is at the end of the street on the left. In the 
venerable stone edifice of St. Peter's Church on St. Peter's 
Street is a tablet to John and Samuel Brown, whom Sndi- 
cott sent back so summarily to England for holding ser- 
vices with the English prayer-book. Emerging upon Es- 
sex Street again, one faces the East India Museum Building 
(open daily), a very mine of treasures, gathered about the 
nucleus of the collections of the old East India Marine So- 
ciety, the members of which must all have rounded either 
Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. The rich IsTatural 
History collection in the outer room of the Museum is 
tempting, but the inner room contains the more unique and 
characteristic exhibit. Here are life-sized figures of In- 
dian merchants, whose heads and hands were carved by the 
old Salem ship carvers, a very rich and valuable collec- 
tion representing old Japan, an interesting exhibit of arti- 
cles from the South Sea Islands, the relics of the East India 
Marine Society, oil portraits of many of the old Salem mer- 
chants and ship-masters, and models and paintings of the 
trim little Salem vessels, pioneers in many ports of the 
world. Here also hangs the original tiller of the yacht 
'' America," used when she crossed the ocean in 1851. 

The average number of visitors to the Museum is 50,000 
annually. 

A short distance below the East India Marine Museum 
and on the opposite side of the street is the Armory of the 
Salem Cadets, once the home of Colonel Francis Peabody, 
where Prince Arthur of England was entertained, and con- 
taining a handsome Gothic banquet hall beautifully carved 

(18) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



in oak. Next below, standing upon the site of the house in 
which the historian, William H. Prescott was born, is 
Plummer Hall, the Library of the Salem Athenaeum, a 
subscription library of 24,000 volumes. A few steps fur- 
ther bring one to that Mecca of the pilgrim, the Essex In- 
stitute (open daily), where one may come into closer contact 
with the manner of life of early New England than any- 
where else perhaps in the land. Here are to be found col- 
lections of the garments which our forefathers wore, the 
utensils with which they cooked, the footstoves and warm- 
ing-pans with which they tried to keep warm, the china 
from which they ate, the harpsichords with which they 
made music, the books which they read, the implements 
with which they toiled. Here are portraits of John Endi- 
cott and Simon Bradstreet and Alexander Hamilton and old 
Dr. Bentley and grandiose William Pepperell in scarlet 
uniform, and scores of others, among them many Copleys. 
Here are Governor Endicott's sun-dial. Governor Bradford's 
baptismal shirt and mits, the canes used by old George 
Jacobs, the witch martyr, the original flag ''Old Glory,'' 
and numerous other interesting relics, beside a library of 
over a hundred thousand volumes, rich in historical lore 
and rare editions — ^a veritable El Dorado for the antiquarian. 
But the pilgrim must not linger here too long if he would 
complete the itinerary we have laid out for him. There 
are the Hawthorne houses and other points of interest 
still to be seen. Among other things Salem is noted for 
its comely porches and doorways. Opposite the Institute 
is the graceful swell-front porch on the house of the Father 
Mathew Society, with its slender Grecian pillars. The Pingree 
House, next below the Institute on the same side, the scene 
of the famous White murder, in the trial of which Webster 
made his famous "suicide-is-confession" argument, has a 
beautiful porch and doorway. Turning the next corner to 
the left, one is charmed by the porch of the Andrew House, 
one of the noblest dwellings in Salem. From the Andrew 

(19) 



THE SALEM PILGHIM: HIS BOOK 



House may be seen queenly Salem Common, surrounded by 
its majestic, hospitable mansions, built, most of them, in 
the period of Salem's commercial grandeur and eloquent 
of her success. To find the house where the ^'Scarlet Letter" 
vras written take the left hand path across the Common, 
and go down Mall Street to 'No. 14. H-eturning, go down 
Essex Street to Union, down Union to the Hav/thorne Birth- 
place, Wo. 27, then on to Derby Street (turn to the left), 
which runs parallel with Essex Street along the shore of 
Salem Harbor. 

While wondering at the quaintness of this queer old 
street the visitor will find himself in front of the far- 







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famed Salem Custom House. After viewing it without and 
(if he chooses) within, let him go out to ths end of the pier 
opposite and take a look at Salem Harbor with its ancient 
decaying wharves, once so full of the bustle of trade. He 
who wishes to visit the "House of Seven Gablrs" can do so 
by a walk of less than quarter of a mile from the Custom 
House, going down Derby Street to Turner Street, near the 

(20) 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



end of which on the right he will find tlie house that has 
won that title. Or, if his courage begins to flag or train- 
time approaches, let him retrace his steps through Derby- 
Street to Charter Street in search of the old Charter Street 
Burying Ground, Next the Custom House is the fine old 
Crowninshield House, now the Horn 3 for Aged Women. 
This was once occupied for several days by President Mon- 
roe upon his tour of the North in 1817. From 1825 to 1849 
it was the home of General James Miller, the hero of 
Lundy's Lane. In the days before the opposite side of 
Derby Street was built up these stately old mansions on the 
slope commanded a fine view of the Harbor. 

Passing from Derby Street into Charter Street one coni:s 
to the Salem Hospital, another fine old Salem residence 
transferred to public uses. With its new outlying wards, the 
hospital is one of the finest in New England. A little beyond 
is the Charter Street Burying Ground, the oldest burying 
ground in the city, overlooked on the further side by the 
Grimshawe House. The quiet enclosure is worthy of more 
than a momentary glance, for here lie Governor Bradstreet, 
Rev. John Higginson, Justice Hathorne, Justice Lynde and 
many another of Salem's past v/orthies. Singularly enough 
the only authenticated grave of any Mayfiower passenger 
is in this cemetery and not in Plymouth: It is that of 
Captain Thomas Moore, who came over in the Mayflower as 
a bound boy. The oldest stone is that of ''Doraty, wife to 
Philip Cromwell, 1673." 

At the end of the street, in a small square, stands the 
only statue in Salem. It is not that of any Salem hero, 
but of an alien, though a worthy one, Pather Theobald 
Matthew, the temperance orator. It is not an unfitting spot 
for such a statue, inasmuch as a spring much used by the 
settlers once bubbled here, while but a few rods away on 
Front Street in later years was the famous '^Deacon Giles 
Distillery." 

From this point the pilgrim, may return, through Front 

(21) 



'^i 14 1903 



THE SALEM PILGRIM: HIS BOOK 



Street, to the station, or, if he is wiser, he will decide to 
go up Central Street to the Essex House and spend a night 
in the city of peace, in order to visit in the morning the 
points of interest which he has not yet seen, — Gallows Hill, 
the old Assembly House on Federal Street, where "Washing- 
ton was entertained, the public Library and the Endicott 
House just below it, Salem Neck and the Willows at the 
opposite end of the city, or the handsome new Normal 
School at the extremity of beautiful Lafayette Street, Then 
there are the surrounding cities and town, with their in- 
teresting objects, which can best be visited from Salem, — 
quaint old Marblehead, Danvers with its Witchcraft and 
Revolutionary relics, and the Endicott pear-tree, and 
Beverly, with its beautiful wooded shore. 

We have endeavored to give, in a brief and sketchy way, 
a hint of what Salem possesses in the way of historical, 
architectural and literary interest and to help the visitor 
a little to find his way about. If he wishes more adequate 
guidance he should secure one of Salem's two intelligent 
and courteous guides, Mr. Arvedson and Mr. Hayward. 
For fuller information the Guide Book, published by the 
Essex Institute, will be found of great service. 

Nothing makes history so real as a visit to the spots 
where it was made, and few places in America are richer 
in historical interest and inspiration than ancient and hon- 
ored Salem. 



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